Just first impressions off that match against the ryu, you dropped so many combos, and cr.mk xx shouken. you were very buttons-y, probably to try and get the cr.mk cancel, but you were getting punished for your attempts and not getting any reward when you hit. I think you need to learn how to bulldog you way in, since you kept running into stuff (walk forward, block).

Your pressure up close also seemed a bit too light. It looked like you were respecting dp too much, and not actively forcing your opponent to do stuff. I always try to condition my opponent to try and do something on wakeup, since frame traps/counter hits is where all of sakura’s damage comes from. Some throws or lights up close is good early on to set the pace for future rounds.

Stop trying to anti air with cr.hp/cl.hp on wakeup safe jumps. Unfortunately, sakura’s wakeup options aren’t fantastic. You just need to accept the safe jump and block, if you don’t delayed wakeup it.

If you want to make ryu think a bit about fireball, you could try throwing in some ex.tatsu at mid. Your only other ways you seemed to be getting in was on guessed jump-ins or ex.otoshi. But this problem could be solved if you can get the cr.mk xx shouken cancel working for you more consistently.

Finally, don’t only press buttons when you are in range for it to connect. You did a ton of “walk forward-> cr.mk” or “walk forward -> xxx”. Footsies is a dance; you need to walk back sometimes too to make opponents second guess their cr.mk, and for you to punish it. I don’t think i saw you walk back (in footsies) ever.

You won a couple rounds for punishing really bad mistakes made from ryu. Thats good. I just didn’t see any rounds that seemed like they were won due to you getting into his head.

Hello sakuras .
We recently had one of the biggest tournaments in Dubai. I was waiting for the main streamer (FrameTrapTV) to upload the matches so I can share them with you guys. However it seems like another channel uploaded some of the matches. Here are a couple of my tournament matches from this weekend.

Me vs Infiltration (Chunli, Akuma).

Me vs Dieminion (Guile) Winners finals.

Me vs Big Bird (Guy, Viper) Losers finals.

Me vs Diemnion (Guile) Grand finals.

Please bare in mind that I am aware of my mistakes during the tournament, which were mostly cornering myself for the setups, and actually missing some of the setups.
Offstream:-
Lost 5-2 vs Xian (Gen).
Lost 5-3 vs Infiltration (Ryu). Only the first 6 matches, when it was 3-3, were streamed, then the stream cut off. I will try my best to get the footage.
Won 5-3 vs Dieminion (Guile).

Please stay tuned for more footage of the offstream matches and team tournament matches. I teamed up as a double sakura team with “Fis” another local sakura player in Dubai, he had a very close set against Xian, he really played against Xian better than Gannon and I. Gannon has a very unique sakura style, he beat me and Fis in both mirrors during the tournament match.

I have more to say about that Ryu’s play than the Sakura’s (I main both). I only watched a couple minutes, but there is no way for Ryu to beat Sakura if she is allowed to jump in so freely on him. Just in terms of Risk-Reward, if she can consistently get in via jumps she gets way too many advantages for the Ryu to ever even try to come back (Big damage if jump in hits, great pressure if blocked, some corner carry either way). The Ryu also went for sweeps too much when a low forward would have been good enough. A lot of Sakuras (aka, me) like to try and focus through the low forward -> fireball, so the Ryu could have tested it by occasionally throwing SPS into the mix, or just not doing the cancel to bait the level one focus dash forward. Ex fireball is okay too, but it isn’t something I like relying on. And quite frankly, the Ryu’s footsies was almost non-existent. He never tested the Sakura on the ground, which made the Sakura just kinda go ham with low forward -> shouken cancels (she was just doing it and not really reacting, it seems). Also, too much jumping from the Ryu also. In this matchup I feel like Ryu can consistently beat Sakura just by throwing fireballs and anti airing, getting meter via the fireball spam, and using that meter later to do damage off of cr.mk fadc, or to use super. The anti airs and cr.mk attacks add up to a lot, and Sakura’s offensive options are very limited.

The Sakura played well. Hit some harder combos, did good safe jump setups, etc. Hard to say how good since he seems much better than the opponent, so it didn’t look like he was tested.

The Ryu, while he did well in his previous FT10’s, hasn’t played in a while. That, and the Sakura player also subs in Ryu for her problematic matchups and occasionally plays against better Ryu in his town. It’s def a practice and knowledge advantage